Last year I joked that I was going to have a complete news blackout in 2008 because election news makes me so mad. I was pissed off for most of 2004, and didn’t really want to experience that again. After a very brief stint working in politics, and having enough chums who have worked on campaigns, I know what I wish everyone did: elections are won by the candidate who puts together the campaign team best at manipulating people. It is no more complicated than that. I know this, and even still it runs so deep that there are times that I need to check myself and make sure that I really whatever I think, and that it wasn’t a statement I heard so much that it became true in my own head.
Anyway, as 2008 wore on, I found I was not only annoyed by election news, I was really disturbed by other news, too. Every sensational killing, absurd publicity stunt by groups I like and don’t like, every new, overly simplified study and foretelling of doom made me increasingly paranoid or angry. So, in early August I started a news blackout. I haven’t watched TV news in three years anyway, and I scarcely watch any other TV, so mostly, it was a matter of breaking the habit of tabbing over to news sites several times a day. After a week or so, I didn’t even think about it. This is not to say that I am uninformed. I was interested in finding out about the VP candidates, for example, and when I did, I looked at voting records and that sort of thing, but that’s it.
What I’ve learned from this is that 1) I really am happier without news, 2) I haven’t missed anything, and 3) “news” is ubiquitous. I’ve gotten more sensitive to it since blocking it as a practice; on the radio in a store during vacation (I walked out.), magazines at the checkout line at the grocery store (I tried to avert my eyes and look at gum.), it’s everywhere. For the love of all things, I couldn’t NOT know how Sarah Palin is being positioned, unless I went and lived in a cave, and even so, she’d probably show up in Cave Weekly.
So, I’m pleased to say that here at the end of September I have absolutely no idea what the latest polls are saying (fine with me), and I haven’t seen a single campaign ad. Tomorrow presents a great challenge, though. We’re going to Scott’s parents’ house, where Fox news is on, and there is no escape unless I walk the dogs for four hours. I have never been to their house when it hasn’t been on, unless there was a sporting event of interest or everyone was asleep (and even then, sometimes it’s STILL on). I think this is deeply unhealthy – this has nothing to do with them specifically or Fox, just the general practice of having a TV on at all times, especially on any single channel, say CNN. (Hi Mom.) If there’s always a TV on, even just as background noise -especially as background noise- how can anyone ever know their own thoughts and ideas? Do you really think that about a particular candidate or mouthwash or car, or have you just heard the message somewhere or other so many damn times that the message now seems right? I am fascinated by how this works. It’s basic communication psychology, but it is still amazing to me how easily we are all manipulated.
I still watch a little bit of TV. Weather channel, an occasional episode of Family Guy or a sporting event, and from time to time, I’ll catch a bit of whatever Scott is watching on the history channel. Still, it usually makes me feel like I need a shower for my mind. Or a TiVO, so I can fast forward through the commercials and not come away from show about wheat feeling absolutely filthy. Somehow, though, having a TiVo for a household of two people who watch twenty minutes of TV a week unless there’s good football or baseball on seems absurd. (Equally absurd, is that that household has recently accumulated two additional TVs, bringing our total to four TVs. Scott and I both recognize the irony of this, and will be parting with at least one. It reminds me of the time I was packing up to move to DC and realized I had three woks, despite the fact that I didn’t cook. I gave them all away. Now I cook, but I have no wok, and I’m still fine. Scott was away this evening and I made a nice curry.)
So, not having access to news has been awesome, although I do have to deal with finding out from other people who watch news if a war breaks out or something else worth knowing. Although, is that worth knowing? Could I still live my ethics without knowing about what in the world needs healing? That’s a thinker.
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